Don't You Remember
by Irwin2000
Summary: Jason and Reyna has always been partners in crime in their years leading up to Jason's disappearance. Now Jason is back to say one last goodbye, effectively destroying whatever is left of their friend/relationship.
"So you're just going to leave? Leave behind everything you built up over the years, leave behind your home, and leave behind people you care about?"

"Please don't make this harder than it already is, Rey. I've made up my mind, and please respect my decision," he answered calmly.

"Oh, so I'm just supposed to respect your decision?! And let you leave all this behind? Don't you remember the place that raised you? And this is what you give in return?" Reyna was fuming at him. She tried to look at his face, that so handsome face that she once, and still loved, no matter what he did. But he's getting closer to the line.

Jason just stood still on the doorway, back towards Reyna, not wanting to have a discussion about it.

"Don't act as if you're not listening. I know you. You were different. You used to fight for our home, Camp Jupiter, more fiercely than anyone else. Respect over the gods, over tradition, over lineage, which was the Jason I knew. But you've changed. You're a coward, Jason. Running away from where you belong just because it is pressing on you."

She heard him gritting his teeth. "I am not. A coward," he said, all too silently.

She let all her emotions out. "But you are one. You're choosing the easy life with the Greeks and with that Greek girlfriend of yours. But don't you feel a sense of duty towards Rome, the place that guarded you for 12 years? Look at your left arm. Does that mean nothing to you?"

He stayed silence for a while. Reyna took the chance to approach him and turning him around, looking at those sky blue eyes she loved about him. He looked back with a stone gaze.

"Don't you remember us? You and me? Jason and Reyna? How we defended against those mini dragons on guard duty, how we pranked our centurions, how we sparred through the night, wanting to top each other off?"

His face started twitching. She saw emotions emerging from within him, and seized the chance to further convince him.

"Don't you remember us? Walking through New Rome almost every night, talking about everything and nothing? Don't you remember how we use to hang out at the Garden of Bacchus, overlooking the progress of New Rome and our camp over the years? Are you still the Jason I knew?"

He answered weakly, "I do remember, Rey. Trust me, I do. Which makes it even harder to leave. Please, stop."

"But you don't have to leave. I'm here. Don't you remember our plans for the future? Centurion at 14, Praetor at 17? Don't you remember us ruling Camp Jupiter as praetors? And afterwards university? How we planned to travel around the world, free of any rule? Don't you want that back?"

"Yes, I did. And I do. But that is the impossible choice. I can't, Rey. I can't." Tears were streaming down his eyes as she brought him into a tight embrace, just as they would a year ago. A year of change, most of which going against her.

"Why? Why can't you? I'm still the same. Camp Jupiter is still the same. Why is the original choice the impossible one?"

"Because I'm in love with her. And love is the most powerful force in the universe. Wars are fought and families are broken, but love is still there."

That statement hit hard. She fell into tears as she remembered how they sometimes feel asleep in the same bed, protecting each other, always being there for the other. Was that not love? Did he not love her?

"So all those months of us after the Great War, Jason and Reyna, the power couple, meant nothing to you? Because it definitely felt like love to me. Was I nobody to you?" She pushed him away, not wanting to be nowhere near the man she used to, and still to this moment, loved. "I waited eight months for you! I sent search parties everywhere! Everybody was so worried. Don't you know how it feels to have my partner in life gone, not knowing if he' still alive? And you're just chilling at the Greek camp, not even bothering to send a message to me.

"Please, don't do this, Reyna. I don't want us to end. We were the best of friends and I want that until the rest of my life. "

"Why, Jason. Why can't we just be together, you and I, a couple, just as we were before we left? Why did you find someone else?"

He slowly walked back to the doorway with a look of sadness. Of regret. Of what could have been. "Because I fell in love with her while my memory of you was gone. And when it resurfaced, I couldn't hold on to it. I couldn't hold on to the past, to someone I didn't knew I would meet again. So I let you go. I never expected us to meet again, and that was the worst feeling of my life, the feeling of approaching you with my new girlfriend, knowing we had been together. Time failed us, Rey. I'm sorry it has to be this way."

With that, and with a last look of regret, he disappeared into the night.

She had never left so lonely before.

Even in the pirate ships, bound and gagged by the vilest pirates in history, she still had her sister.

And in Camp, she had always had Jason.

Until he left.

She took her sword out and hit the door frame as hard as she could. What was she feeling?

Anger? Resentment? Hatred? Regret?

As hard as she tried, she couldn't stay mad at Jason. It truly wasn't his fault he had changed. He didn't have a say in getting his life turned around. Deep down, she knew who was to blame.

That was when she made up her mind. Of leaving her home behind.

Just as he did.

She doesn't want to deal with the gods anymore. With Roman politics. With anything related to the gods.

She finally understood Percy's feeling of resentment towards the gods. Of all the demigods that defected from them. Life without them would be much better. At least then could carve out her own path, not following a predetermined path set by godly beings she never met nor care about.

Her bags are packed. Looking back at her villa for the last time, she left the premise. She got out in New Rome through one of the southern passes, straight into the city of San Francisco. She knew where she was going. Hylla had built a safehouse in the city just in case one day she wanted to escape. It wasn't much, but better than nothing.

She felt like she just hit the restart button. She has nobody but herself in her life.

But starting anew is better than continuing with something missing.

And Jason Grace is the missing piece she will never get back.


End file.
